Georgia Truck Accident Attorney Blog

As a trucking safety trial attorney in Georgia, I spend a lot of time with truck drivers, either representing them when they get badly hurt, suing them when they badly hurt someone else, or interviewing them as witnesses. Based on personal experience, I've thought about posting a review of truck stop food. I know that usually when they break the safety rules, it is because the company pressured them to do so.

This morning I received a comment on this blog from a truck driver who tells it like it is. Rather than leaving it buried in "comments," I'm posting it on its own. For obvious reasons, I must protect this truck driver's identity.

Where I work essentially...if you don't make the logs appear legal and continue running past your 70 hour limit and are caught by the DOT,shut down for 10 hrs and written up for a 'Violation'(as opposed to falsifying your logs to 'look legal' and keep rolling) you will be suspended for 2 weeks by the 'safety dept' and your truck will most likely be given to a new driver while your suspended,on the other hand,if you are late delivering,you will be written up and possibly terminated. How many hours you have to operate is irrelevant. Freight comes first. Technically isn't "coercion" like this against the law ?

Continue reading "Comment from a truck driver who is coerced to break the law" »

I'm a trucking safety lawyer in Atlanta, not a futurist or a psychic. However, I'm going to go out on a limb and post my top five predictions for motor carrier safety in 2010.

1. Accident and fatality rates in interstate commercial trucking will continue to decline.

2. In addition to a ban on text messaging by truck drivers while in motion, FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) will require an interlock between truck cab communication systems and truck transmission, so that drivers must stop the truck before typing a response.

3. FMCSA will require Electronic On Board Recorders (EOBR) for all new commercial road tractors, and retrofitting of existing units within 3 to 5 years.

4. The FMCSA will require seat belts and safety glass in new motor coaches, and may require retrofitting of existing motor coaches with seat belts within 3 to 5 years.

5. FMCSA’s new Comprehensive Safety Analysis (CSA 2010) program will make truck drivers more conscious of the need to maintain their own health in order to maintain a Commercial Driver’s License, thereby gradually increasing demand for truck stop chains to begin offering healthy food and exercise facilities.

Continue reading "Top 5 predictions for motor carrier safety in 2010" »

The owner of a trucking firm has pleaded guilty to criminal charges arising from the maintenance of a defective and almost brakeless tractor-trailer rig that caused a fatal six car crash in Pennsylvania last January. He is the third man to face criminal sentences due to that wreck. They are:

* Owner of tractor portion of rig - Victor M. Kalinitchii, 41, Philadelphia, homicide by motor vehicle, faces 3 1/2 to 7 years in prison.

* Driver - Valerijs N. Belovs, 56, from Northeast Philadelphia, homicide by vehicle, faces 8 1/2 to 17 years in prison.

* Maintenance - Joseph W. Jadczak Jr., 61, owner of Pratts Auto Service in Philadelphia, homicide by motor vehicle, faces 3 1/2 to seven years in prison.

If civil remedies aren't enough to get the attention of trucking company owners who put drivers on the road in unsafe vehicles, or require drivers to work when too fatigued to be safe, then perhaps criminal prosecutions can get their attention.

However, Georgia law on homicide by vehicle is written in terms that would be unlikely to reach beyond the driver of the vehicle. See OCGA § 40-6-393 and cross references. Do any of my fellow lawyers out there see an interpretation of those code section that would support criminal prosecution in Georgia of a truck owner or repair facility that put a defective truck on the road?

Continue reading "Trucking company owner, driver and repair facility owner guilty of criminal charges in fatal PA truck crash" »

Several times I have written about the difficult lifestyle of truck drivers, and how that adversely affects their health and the safety of others on the roads. It is virtually impossible to find healthy food or a place to exercise at truck stops across America. So truckers are somewhat more prone than other middle aged guys, become obese and develop cardiovascular illnesses, diabetes, sleep apnea, etc. (Not that I'm such a paragon of fitness either, but at least it's easy for me to eat healthy, jog around the neighborhood and get to the gym in my office building if I make the time.)

But driving with my son from Los Angeles to Atlanta a few days ago, I noted something even worse affecting truckers' lifestyle. Through Arizona and New Mexico we saw several truck stops with adjoining casinos. I didn't stop to see if they have healthy food or exercise facilities, but they surely have places for truckers to drink and gamble away their earnings.

There are no casinos in Georgia, and certainly no truck stop casinos. For a number of reasons, primarily my view of morality, I would be happy to keep it that way.

Continue reading "Truck stop casinos" »

Every time I make my way from Atlanta to Savannah, I enjoy watching the container ships cruising up the river past downtown. They are always stacked high with hundreds of huge freight containers.

Thousands of those containers are unloaded from the ships onto truck trailers and trains at every major port to be transported across the country. Georgia highways are full of intermodal containers imported through the ports of Savannah, Jacksonville and Charleston.

Often the trailers used in these intermodal operations are old chassis repainted to look good but poorly maintained. Too often the trailers that were loaded in Shanghai or Rotterdam contained unbalanced loads that ride fine on a ship but are dangerous in highway curves.

Over the past several years there has been increasing concern about safety of intermodal freight operations.

Now the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has announced plans to add a fifth equipment marking option to its rules, allowing chassis to be identified through a system that uses technology to match equipment to the company responsible for its maintenance.

They hope this will clear the way for industry efforts to launch a global registry for intermodal equipment.

Of more immediate interest to families of people catastrophically injured in crashes of trucks hauling these freight containers is the difficulty of reaching the insurance coverage of the intermodal companies. Often the inland truck hauling is brokered to a small trucking company or owner-operator with only $750,000 to $1,000,000 liability coverage. That sounds like a lot, but when you're looking at a $20,000,000 life care plan for a catastrophic injury, it's a drop in the bucket.

Courts in Georgia have had a hard time coming to terms with the totality of intermodal shipping, tending to look at just the tip end of the spear and not at who is throwing the spear.

Last Friday, I spent a day in St. Louis at a seminar by David Nissenberg from San Diego, author of the book, Law of Commercial Trucking. He is a scholar of this area of law, and has painstakingly put together the legal theory to connect all the dots and reach the insurance policies of the ocean shipping companies that bring the containers into the US and load them on the trucks. In a tour de force, he combines international treaties, U. S. maritime laws and regulations, standard maritime bills of lading and other shipping documents, interlocking provisions of the Motor Carrier Act and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, Restatement of Torts, Restatement of Agency, etc.

David hasn't published a paper on this. There are no cases on point yet anywhere in the U.S. To persuade a judge who is busy, understaffed, and knows little about this area of the law, will require some masterful explanation.

But when a catastrophic container freight trucking case comes along, we're ready.

This is a great lesson for those naive lawyers who think an commercial trucking accident is just a bigger car wreck.

Continue reading "Container freight truck crash liability" »

As a trucking accident trial attorney in Atlanta, it may appear that I'm always focusing on the negative about truckers, even though I'm often representing innocent truckers against other truckers who injure them.

This Sunday, I want to call attention to a more positive story about truckers. CNN ran a profile of Rev. Joe Hunter, chaplain to truckers, who reaches his mobile congregation reaches out to truckers at fuel stops, in parking lots, on the CB and through a radio show called "Heaven's Road." He holds worship services at Wednesday night service at the Truckers Chapel at a truck stop on I-75 south of Atlanta.

Just as it is tough for truck drivers to find nutritious food at places where an 18 wheeler can easily park, Rev. Hunter points out that most churches can't park an 18 wheelers.

Continue reading "Truckers Chapel at truck stop on I-75 south of Atlanta" »

The Obama administration has announced that Anne Ferro will be nominated to head the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

She is currently president of the Maryland Motor Truck Association, a trucking industry organization. Previously she ran the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration, administering drivers licenses.

Her nomination drew immediate praise from trucking industry officials.

But the Truck Safety Coalition, Parents Against Tired Truckers, Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH). and Teamsters Union have expressed concerns about her commitment to trucking safety.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Continue reading " Anne Ferro picked to head Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration" »

Today's Los Angeles Times carries an article by Scott Glover reporting that the FBI suspects that serial killers working as long-haul truck drivers may be responsible for murders of hundreds of prostitutes, hitchhikers and stranded motorists whose bodies have been dumped near interstate highways over the past 30 years.

The FBI has compiled a database correlating information on more than 500 female victims, most of whom were killed and their bodies discarded at truck stops, motels and other locations along heavily traveled trucking routes across the U.S., and information on scores of truckers who've been charged with killings or rapes committed near highways or who are suspects in such crimes.

Investigators have speculated that the mobility, lack of supervision and access to potential victims that come with the job make it a good cover for someone inclined to kill.

Of course, it is no more fair to hold that against the reasonably decent 99.999% of truckers who may fudge on their logs but don't intentionally kill anyone than it is to stigmatize priests and teachers as pedophiles because of the bad acts of a perverted 0.001%.

People with evil intent may be attracted to an occupation that provides easy access to potential victims, but that should not be held against the vast majority who are reasonably decent folks. Some of the victims discussed in the article were truck stop prostitutes whose choices made them especially vulnerable to predators using a truck driving job as a cover to act as serial killers. Of course, it's never open season on women, even if they are truck stop prostitutes, and the killers should be brought to justice.

I suppose the take-home points of the story are that law enforcement officers now have a useful new tool to help catch serial killers using trucking as a cover, women traveling alone should take all necessary precautions for their safety, and we should guard against unfairly stigmatizing truck drivers as a group.

Continue reading "FBI sets up database connecting trucker suspects and bodies dumped along highways" »

While my law practice primarily involves representing individuals and families in injury and death claims caused by negligent trucking companies, I get a lot of calls from truck drivers. Some of them are bright, sophisticated people.

Last week I had a call from a truck driver who has a master's degree from a nationally prominent university. Truck driving wasn't the original career plan, but the market's a little weak for liberal arts and social sciences degrees.

Our conversation wandered through several aspects of the trucking lifestyle. One thing we discussed was the difficulty of maintaining a sensible regimen of diet and exercise, a topic on which I recently wrote.

This trucker talked at length about the near impossibility of finding healthy food at truck stops, and the lack of safe places to get exercise at or near truck stops. The trucker commented on gaining 30 pounds in the first four months on the road.

In 2007, the Transportation Research Board published a lengthy report on Health and Wellness Programs for Commercial Drivers.

A common sense observation in the report is:

It is estimated that more than 50% of commercial drivers are regular smokers. Many are obese, lack proper physical exercise, tend to develop chronic diseases such as diabetes at relatively early ages, and may have slightly elevated suicide rates.

A few key points from the report are:

• What is needed is long-term is a cultural change, a paradigm shift in the transportation industry toward embracing integrated models of health, safety, and productivity management
as being the joint and shared responsibility of individual drivers, their managers, and senior leadership of their organizations.

• Transportation companies interested in developing their own employee health and wellness programs are still very much in need of guidance and resources on “how to do it.” Better tools and off-the-shelf practices for translating knowledge into action are needed.

• Prominent in the practical experiences of carriers is the difficulty of making employee health and wellness program elements available to the drivers themselves—that is, how does one effectively reach and obtain driver involvement, especially when drivers are so mobile because of their day-to-day working environment and their quick turnover rates in employment?

• Commercial driver advocate groups (e.g., FMCSA, ATA, NPTC, ATRI, the ABA, UMA, and others) each have important roles to play in helping bring about the needed culture change toward employee (driver) health and wellness programs.

• Screening for deficits in specific visual, mental, and physical abilities that significantly predict at-fault crashes can be practically carried out in an office environment. With the
aging of the work force, such practices will have increasing value for industry and highway safety.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is attempting to address this problem with reforms of regulations on medical certification of drivers. But truck drivers' lifestyle, diet and exercise, remain huge challenges.

It's a long report with a lot of detail. I commend it to professional truck drivers and safety managers.

Continue reading "Health and wellness challenges for truck drivers affect safety" »

Not surprisingly, the "safety culture" of a trucking company is a huge factor in determining whether its drivers are involved in catastrophic truck crashes.

The Transportation Research Board published a couple of years ago "The Role of Safety Culture
in Preventing Commercial Motor Vehicle Crashes."

Some key points from that study are:

• Culture and safety have a clear connection.
• Safety culture is best defined and indexed by an organization’s norms, attitudes, values, and
beliefs regarding safety.
• Effective top to bottom safety communication and interactions enhance safety culture.
• Terms such as “accident” and “mishap” are often replaced with the terms “crash,” “wreck,”
and other more appropriate, straightforward terms in many safe cultures.
• In many instances, organizations, organizational subgroups, and professions may each have
identifiable safety culture.
• Recognition and certain rewards systems for safe behavior are an effective component of safety culture.
• Driver experience enhances a safety culture, especially if that experience is with one carrier.
Driver retention problems, however, have the potential for degrading a safety culture.
• Many levels of communicating safety culture are necessary in “remote workforce” industries
such as truck and bus operations.
• Policies, procedures, employee safety responsibilities, and safety messages must be clear and simple.
Hiring practices, safety training and education, company orientation, and safety management
are all key components of a safety culture.
• Measuring safety performance of drivers and the organization as a whole are key components of a safety culture.

Actions that companies may take to improve their safety culture include the following:

• Develop or redevelop internal definitions of culture and safety.
• Conduct “Swiss cheese” analyses, to determine what omissions in the management system contributed to accidents.
• Identify and dispel myths, such as the tendency to always blame weather or outside factors.
• Conduct institutional safety knowledge development.
• Define or redefine employee safety roles from top to bottom
• Assess the effectiveness of safety communication and reengineer systems of safety communication.
• Create or enhance a system of safety record data collection and analysis.
• Develop or redevelop motivational tools, such as tying driver compensation and advancement to safety.
• Improve driver retention.

It's a long report. I commend it to any truckers and safety managers who are interested in improving safety.

And I will certainly refer to it in "looking under the hood" of the management system of companies whose trucks crash into my clients, causing serious injury or death.

Continue reading ""Safety culture" is important for prevention of catastrophic truck crashes" »

As a trucking safety trial attorney in Atlanta, Georgia, and engaged with attorneys handling these cases from coast to coast, I try to keep up with the continuing shell game as the folks responsible for putting truckers on the road and pushing them often beyond both the rules and their capacity, seek to avoid accountability to people they hurt.

A recent article by Robert Franklin in Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel Quarterly, titled "But I didn't do it!": Expanding Theories of Vicarious Liability," is a pretty good outline of liability theories against brokers and shippers, and defenses against each of those theories of liabilty.

It includes discussion of claims for:

* negligent hiring
* negligent entrustment
* failure to provide "safe and adequate service, equipment, and facilities"
* status of a broker as a motor carrier under the regulations
* aiding and abetting a motor carrier's violation of the regulations
* negligent selection of an independent contractor
* truck driver for Company A as permissive user of trailer owned and insured by Company B

We have dealt with most of these theories and defense in our cases, but there are always new wrinkles to consider.

Thanks to Ronald Miller at Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog for pointing this out.

Continue reading "Defense-oriented article casts more light on claims against freight brokers and shippers" »

Corporate shell games to avoid accountability for injuring or killing people are all too common. We see it an a variety of contexts. Today I got an email outlining how attorneys for nursing homes are directing their clients to lower their insurance coverage to $100,000 and set up an intricate network of corporate entities to protect the real estate and the owners' assets, while leaving anyone injured in their operations high and dry.

In the trucking context, there is a long history of motor carriers using creative subterfuges to avoid financial responsibility for people harmed by trucks hauling freight for them. Between 1935 and 1956, many interstate motor carriers attempted to immunize themselves from liability for the negligence of their drivers by leasing trucks and nominally classifying the drivers who operated the trucks as “independent contractors."

Because trip-leasing made it difficult for a member of the public injured by the operation of a leased vehicle to fix carrier responsibility, and in order to protect the public from the negligent conduct of the often judgment-proof truck-lessor operators, Congress passed a law in 1956 to require interstate motor carriers to assume full direction and control of the vehicles that they leased “as if they were the owners of such vehicles.”

The purpose of that legislation was to ensure that interstate motor carriers would be fully responsible for the maintenance and operation of the leased equipment and the supervision of the borrowed drivers, thereby protecting the public from accidents, preventing public confusion about who was financially responsible if accidents occurred, and providing financially responsible defendants. Thus, since 1956, owner-operators who are independent contractors in relation to motor carriers have been considered “statutory employees” of the carriers in relation to any injured member of the public.

Congress has unambiguously expressed its clear intent to establish minimum national standards for safety and and financial responsibility of motor carriers. The Regulations authorized by Congress unambiguously support holding a motor carrier accountable for injury to an innocent member of the traveling public.

Under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, the definition of “motor carrier” includes “a motor carrier’s agent,” “employee” includes “an independent contractor while in the course of operating a commercial motor vehicle,” and “lease” includes a “contract or arrangement in which the owner grants the use of equipment, with or without driver. . . .” The disjunctive reference to “contract or arrangement” must have some significance other than mere redundancy. In addition, the Regulations require that “[e]very motor carrier, its officers, agents . . . shall be instructed in and comply with the rules. . . .”

While the Regulations require a written lease, until last summer there had never been a reported court decision anywhere in the United States that let a motor carrier evade liability when it informally hired an owner-operator without bothering with the formality of a lease.

However, in one of our cases in which a jury had awarded over $2.3 million to our client for a serious permanent injury, a single judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals wrote a decision that disregards or misconstrues the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations and conflicts with every relevant reported decision of both federal and state courts across the nation. See Clarendon Nat. Ins. Co. v. Johnson, 293 Ga.App. 103, 666 S.E.2d 567 (2008).

Standing the law on its head, that decision provides judicial blessing for motor carriers to circumvent all responsibility for owner-operator drivers by avoiding either execution of a written lease or use of the word “lease” in an oral arrangement. The only case cited as authority for the holding was an unpublished Texas decision that has nothing to do with our case, either on the facts or on the law.

This decision enables interstate motor carriers to hire without accountability unqualified owner-operator drivers who have no motor carrier authority and no commercial driver’s license, and who make no pretense of complying with any of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.

This decision allows violation of one of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations to exempt motor carriers from compliance with the rest of the regulations, thus enabling them to immunize themselves through semantics. In this time of economic turmoil, motor carriers are freed to roll back the clock more than half a century to the type of abuse that the 1956 adoption of the “statutory employer” rule was designed to eliminate.

Within the past few days we have filed a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States. That is a statistical long shot, as the Supreme Court agrees to hear only a tiny percentage of even highly meritorious cases.

If this decision stands, interstate trucking companies that are inclined to evade safety and financial responsibility rules will be able to revert to the pre-1956 practice of using non-compliant, unqualified and financially incapable “independent contractor” truckers for whom the carriers would bear no responsibility to the public. All of this was pointed out the the Georgia Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, but under the circumstances I find it hard to believe that anyone other than the one judge whose name is on the decision actually read and reflected upon the briefs and the implications of the decision.

Avoiding the expense of equipment maintenance, safety management and financial responsibility required by federal law, they could undercut the cost structure of law-abiding motor carriers and owner-operators, subjecting lawful trucking operations to unfair competition from those that exploit this loophole.

As bad drives out good, if this Georgia Court of Appeals decision approving the evasion of interstate motor carrier responsibility stands, the safety of the public on highways throughout the United States will be adversely impacted.

And innocent people across the country will die because one judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals gave his blessing to an evasion of responsibility contrary to all other interstate motor carrier law in the United States.

No, I'm not attempting to argue my appeal in a blog, as if that were even possible. I'm just warning other folks around the country that they may see the same sort of evasion as motor carriers learn that this shell game fooled a state Court of Appeals.

Continue reading "Intricate shell games evade accountability" »

President Obama has signed legislation killing the Transportation Department’s controversial test of longhaul cross-border trucking with Mexico. As a trucking safety trial attorney in Atlanta, Georgia, I haven't yet seen problems with Mexican truckers but I do see truckers who don't speak English although adequate English proficiency is required under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.

A provision of a $410 billion spending bill prevents DOT from using any money in the 2009 fiscal year to “establish, implement, continue, promote or in any way permit” a cross-border trucking program with Mexico. However, the Department of Transportation quickly released a statement to the effect that officials would study the issue some more.

All this is well summarized in an article by Sean McNally in Transport Topics.

Until President Clinton signed a moratorium on admission of Mexican trucks in 1994, Mexican trucks entered the US routinely, much as Canadian trucks do.

Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) trucking companies in all three counties claimed rights to move freely back and forth between the countries. However, it never happened with Mexican trucks.

The US DOT over the past couple of years made halting efforts to begin admitting a limited number of Mexican truckers to the US. However, there was a firestorm of controversy, largely expressed in terms of maintaining US safety standards on Mexican trucks entering the US when safety standards and enforcement in Mexico are questionable. There were also concerns expressed about the violent drug trade in Mexico, and the potential for Mexican trucks smuggling drugs, illegal immigrants and terrorists.

Now the Mexican government is talking about economic retribution and Mexican trucking companies are threatening lawsuits in US courts.

Continue reading "Mexican trucks barred from US again" »

Truck driver fatigue is one of the most obvious causes of truck crashes. Obstructive sleep apnea is among the most common contributing factors. Obesity is a big risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea.

Now there is another study reconfirming the obvious: that obesity-driven testing strategies identify commercial truck drivers with a high likelihood of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), and that mandating obstructive sleep apnea screenings could reduce the risk of truck crashes.

The study by Cambridge Health Alliance published in the March 2009 edition of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine concludes that:

- Truck drivers with sleep apnea have up to a 7-fold increased risk of being involved in a motor vehicle crash.

- Drivers with sleep apnea frequently minimize or underreport symptoms such as snoring and daytime sleepiness.

- A majority of truck drivers did not follow through on physician recommendations for sleep studies and sleep apnea treatment.

- It is possible that many of the 14 million truck drivers on American road have undiagnosed or untreated sleep apnea.

- "It is very likely that most of the drivers who did not comply with sleep studies or sleep apnea treatment sought medical certification from examiners who do not screen for sleep apnea and are driving with untreated or inadequately treated sleep apnea."

- The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is currently deliberating recommendations to require sleep apnea screening for all obese drivers based on body mass index or "BMI."

Continue reading "Sleep apnea in truck drivers linked to obesity" »

Ray LaHood, the new US Secretary of Transportation, is apparently focused on infrastructure and air traffic control, but not so much on trucking safety.

According to an Associated Press article by Michael Tarm, LaHood is preparing to meet with the state DOT chiefs from all 50 states about plans for road and mass transit projects with funds from the economic stimulus legislation. That seems certain to consume most of his energy and attention.

A strong second priority is replacement of the radar-based national air traffic control system with a satellite-based system called NextGen.

I have not yet seen any announcement of who may be the new head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Stay tuned.

Continue reading "Trucking safety not at top of priority list for new DOT Secretary" »

If you specialize in truck wreck litigation so you can do research at truck stops, you might be a redneck lawyer.

On a long car trip a couple of days ago, I stopped for caffeine at a truck stop that is part of one of the big national truck stop chains. Walking around the store area, I reconfirmed something I wrote recently about how hard it is for long-haul truck drivers to follow a healthy diet and exercise routine.

About 98% of the food and beverage items in that truck stop were high in fat, salt and calories. Adjoining the truck stop was a fast food outlet with virtually no items that you would eat if you were trying to maintain healthy weight. There were some in-cab cooking appliances that a driver could use to prepare food he brought from home, but nothing that would constitute a healthy meal. However, it is unusual to find a supermarket where fresh produce could be purchased with parking spaces for big rigs.

While truck stops often have showers and video games, I don't think I've ever seen one with any exercise facilities. If a trucker wants to run on his off duty hours, consider that most truck stops are located on busy highways by freeway exits, hardly conducive environments for safe running.

A trucker who was a former professional hockey player once told me what an ordeal it is for him to find decent food and a place to exercise. For anyone less motivated than a former pro athlete, the strong tendency is to become increasingly obese and unhealthy while driving over the road. At the truck stop I visited this week, that was grossly obvious as about 90% of the truck drivers I saw were very significantly overweight. They looked like prime candidates for obstructive sleep apnea.

It would be refreshing to see one of the truck stop chains start marketing to truckers on the basis of healthy food options and availability of gym facilities along with showers.

Continue reading "Truck stop visit illustrates how hard it is for truckers to maintain healthy lifestyle" »

For years we have been hearing about a severe shortage of qualified over the road truck drivers, contributing to widespread safety concerns.

Now the severe economic recession has cut into shipping volume, led to an ongoing consolidation of the trucking industry, and a glut of qualified drivers, as reported by Rick Rommell of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

This is just the latest "bad news / good news" story in the interesting times in which we live.

Continue reading "Recession ends truck driver shortage" »

Trucking safety lawyers as well as everyone else concerned about transportation issues needs to pay attention to personnel choices in the US Department of Transportation. You remember the old cliche that "personnel is policy." Even an humble personal injury trial attorney handling trucking accident cases in Atlanta should be attentive.

President-elect Obama has picked Ray LaHood, a retiring Republican congressman from rural Illinois as his Secretary of Transportation. Here's what some of the commentators around the country are saying:

* John Hughes and Julianna Goldman at Bloomberg.com write:

Even with firm Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, Obama will need help across the aisle. Legislation to upgrade the nation’s air-traffic control system has been stuck in Congress for more than a year and the Bush administration has been fighting airlines over flight rights in New York. Meanwhile, Obama is planning to give states an infusion of funds to create jobs by improving the nation’s infrastructure. . . .
In an attempt to cut through partisan rancor in the late 1990’s, LaHood organized a series of annual retreats -- at resorts a short train or car ride outside of Washington -- to bring together lawmakers and their families.

* In The New Republic, John B. Judis writes "LaHood and Solis: Second Round Picks":

Bush’s administration. But they should be important in Obama’s administration. Transportation has a stake in America’s two biggest manufacturing industries, planes and auto. Much of the $900 billion and rising in infrastructure funding is going to go through the Transportation Department. The secretary is not just going to be responsible for shepherding this spending through Congress, but also for shaping what kind of spending occurs. What gets funded--highways, airports, rail, mass transit--and in what proportion will determine what the country looks like well into the next decades. LaHood is being touted as being pro-rail because he didn’t vote against AMTRAK, but I have heard little to convince me that he will bring any kind of vision to the job or that he will able to sell controversial provisions in the Senate.

* John O'Dell at Green Car Advisor on Edmunds.com writes:

LaHood has little transportation record beyond his support for Amtrak, the national passenger train program, and his apparently friendly relationship with the Teamsters Union and other transportation unions, which endorsed and financially supported him during his congressional career. The national Teamseters Union also has endorsed his nomination as Transportation Secretary.

* American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA) is the industry organization of companies providing pavement markings, road signs, work zone traffic control devices, guardrail, and other roadside safety features. It issued a statement that it was "is enthused by the selection and recommends prompt confirmation from the Senate."

* Oliver Patton at TruckingInfo.com wrote that LaHood will "have to hit the ground running: Obama has called for massive public works investments, in the short term for economic stimulus and in the longer term for rebuilding and modernizing transportation infrastructure."

Continue reading "Quick clips: what they're saying about prospective DOT Secretary Ray LaHood" »

Taking a break from trucking accident litigation on the day after Christmas, I'm sitting at home in Atlanta, in a house where it seems everyone else is either sleeping or out bargain hunting, reading the news.

A few quick notes on the news as it relates to the trucking industry safety and economics, which in turn ultimately affects safety:

* Three members of a Duluth, Georgia, family were killed on Christmas Eve when they were rearended by a tractor trailer on the Pennsylvania Turnpike en route to New York. Benito Rivera, Christina Rivera-Morales and their four year old child were killed. Their two year old survived. One report says this happened in freezing rain, the sort of adverse weather that requires that truckers operate with "extreme caution." According to another report, the family vehicle had lost control and come to rest across the traffic lane in the dark. Let's remember that family in our prayers, as well as the overstressed and underpaid trucker who probably hit them while trying to get home for Christmas with his family, and hold our own loved ones tight.

* YRC Worldwide parent company of Yellow Freight, cancelled a $150 million tender offer and is negotiating for easier terms on its credit lines as its shares dropped 18% and Moody's cut its credit rating. The carrier's freight tonnage was down substantially -- 11%, 12% 21% depending on how the counting is done -- from last year YRC was also negotiating a sale-leaseback of a portion of its facilities.

* Navistar International,manufacturer of trucks, buses, and diesel engines, is restating its net income upward due to an accounting error. While reported earning were up, the stock went down. The company benefited from higher military revenue and demand for more fuel efficient trucks, offsetting some of the decline in general trucking demand.

* The Wall Street Journal in a lead editorial blasted prospective DOT Secretary Ray LaHood as "Obama's Secretary of Earmarks," criticizing him for having "facilitatated the incontinent spending that helped Republicans lose their majority...." That is followed by an editorial titled "...And Bridges to Everywhere," lampooning some spending projects proposed by local governments. Let's hope that the new infrastructure spending will be more like Ike's building of the interstate highway system in my youth, investing in our children's future.

* California has passed the nation's strictest rules on diesel fuel emissions. While my son may breathe marginally cleaner air near L.A., the increased cost for truckers to comply comes at a very difficult time.

* In another California story, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced on Christmas Eve a ruling that the hours of service rules for interstate truckers do not preempt California laws and regulations requiring employers to provide employees with meal and rest breaks.

* The U.S. isn't the only country where the economic slowdown is affecting trucking. In India, about 158,000 commercial trucks went back to the lenders in December alone.

Continue reading "Quick clips on Boxing Day: trucking economics and safety" »

Seldom does my trucking litigation practice as an attorney in Atlanta overlap with my semi-regular reading of Investors Business Daily. However, the issue for Monday, 12/22/08, includes an insightful article by J. Bonasia titled "Trucking Firms Shift Gears."

Some key points:

* "A central part of the industry's cost structure involves a focus on safety, which is the main differentiator among trucking firms."

* "All trucking firms pay roughly the same amount for fuel, trucks, drivers and equipment, . . . .So the real difference is the quality of people who deliver the service and their safety record. That can prevent a company from being bitten by losses due to accidents."

* Advantages of GPS tracking system for efficient fleet management and auxillary power units for energy conservation.

* Consolidation of the trucking industry in the current economic contraction as smaller and less well managed companies fail.

So it's not just plaintiffs' lawyers (that nasty breed constantly berated by IBD) and wingnut safety crusaders who recognize that safety is crucial to profitability. Business analysts too recognize that safety management is critical to profitability in the trucking industry.

Continue reading "Safety management a key to trucking industry profitability" »

Bankruptcy (or mere shutdown) of 2,700 trucking companies in 2008 have put more than 127,000 trucks out of commission, cutting U.S. trucking capacity by 6.5 %, according to Donald Broughton, an analyst with the Avondale Partners research firm, as quoted by Mateusz Perkowski of Capital Press.

In previous economic downturns, trucks were simply mothballed and then returned to sevice when the economy improved. However, due to the weak dollar throughout much of 2008, there was a huge overseas demand for U.S. trucks. Many of the used trucks this year have been exported to Russia and Eastern Europe, resulting in more lost trucking capacity than in previous recessions.

The current contraction in trucking capacity may result in shipping demand quickly exceeding capacity when the economy recovers, so that trucking companies will be able to charge higher rates. Then, as they expand capacity to meet rising demand, they will be ordering new equipment with the next generation of fleet management and safety technology.

That should result in safer operations, fewer accidents and injuries in relation to the volume of traffic. But as we have been told so many times lately, it will get worse before it gets better.

Continue reading "Trucking industry capacity declining with recession" »

As an attorney in Atlanta, Georgia, handling litigation resulting from accidents involving motor carriers (truck, bus, tractor trailer, big rigs, etc.), I have observed with interest the controversies about the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in recent years. Looking ahead, it will be interesting to see who is picked to run the DOT and FMCSA in the next administration.

With many challenges regarding infrastructure, funding and technology, as well as safety rules and enforcement, personnel will be policy.

A report from Associated Press lists three likely candidates for Secretary of Transportation: Jane Garvey, former head of the Federal Aviation Administration. Mortimer Downey, former deputy transportation secretary. Steve Heminger, executive director, San Francisco Bay area transportation commission. Garvey and Downey are both on the Obama DOT transition team.

Garvey graduated from Mount St. Mary's College and earned an M.A. at Mount Holyoke. She was the first female FAA administrator. .Here is a copy of her testimony to Congress as FAA Administrator after September 11th. Out of office, she has been executive vice president of the transportation practice at the Washington lobbying firm APCO Worldwide. She has also served the boards of Mitre, the Flight Safety Foundation, and Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier She currently serves as the chairwoman of the Capital-to-Capital Coalition, which advocates for nonstop commercial air service between Beijing and Washington Dulles International Airport and head of U.S. public-private partnerships at JPMorgan

Downey also has had a long career in public transportation administration. His educational background includes graduation with honors from Yale University in 1958, a master's degree in public administration from New York University in 1966, and the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program in 1988. He worked in administration for the Port Authority of New York, as a congressional transportation analyst, Assistant Secretary for Budget and Programs at the Department of Transportation in the Carter Administration, executive director and chief financial officer at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York. In the Clinton Administration, he was Deputy Secretary of USDOT and was the Department’s Chief Operating Officer. Out of office, he has been with Parsons Brinckerhoff, an international engineering and transportation consulting firm.

Heminger is the executive director of Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) in the San Francisco Bay area and has served on the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission. He received his M.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from Georgetown University.

The transition team also has considered Rep. James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Transportation Committee, and Rep. Peter A. DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of its highways and transit subcommittee.

I haven't yet seen speculation in the press about who might be the new FMCSA chief, but stay tuned.

Continue reading "Who will be new Secretary of Transportation and director of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration?" »

As a trial lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia, focused largely on motor carrier (tractor trailer, big rig, truck and bus) accident practice, I work every day with the practical realities of individual lawsuits. However, it is useful to also look beyond the horizon at trends that will affect our clients and our practice in years ahead.

Anyone who thinks that current trends will always continue need only look at the discontinuities caused by numerous pivotal events in our lifetime. The internet, cell phones and 9/11 come immediately to mind. In fact, it is almost certain that all trends will be disrupted, sooner or later. Therefore, we need to think about both continuity and discontinuity in guessing where we may be in 10 or 20 years.

Each year the editors of THE FUTURIST pick their top 10 forecasts for their annual Outlook report. Over the years, Outlook has forecast developments as the Internet, virtual reality, and the end of the Cold War. Here some notes of the top 10 forecasts from Outlook 2009 with my rambling thoughts about the implications for trucking safety, law and litigation:

1. "Everything you say and do will be recorded by 2030. By the late 2010s, ubiquitous, unseen nanodevices will provide seamless communication and surveillance among all people everywhere. . . "

The most obvious implication for trucking safety and litigation would be universal electronic data recording on all vehicles. Accident reconstruction would become both more complex and more certain as all speeds and forces would be recorded. Truckers' hours of service would be known and not the subject of "comic book" logs. Litigation of truck accidents would be both simpler and more complex, as facts could be determined with greater certainty but through a process requiring greater technological sophistication. Those of us handling truck accident litigation may need to retrain ourselves with greater sophistication in information technology.

2. "Bioviolence will become a greater threat as the technology becomes more accessible. Emerging scientific disciplines (notably genomics, nanotechnology, and other microsciences) could pave the way for a bioattack. . . . "

New threats will lead to new security measures. Expect tighter security measures to prevent weapons of mass destruction from being shipped in freight containers through our ports and transported on trucks. Detection devices capable of screening freight containers for all biological and nuclear weapons must be developed and deployed.

3. "The car’s days as king of the road may soon be over. More powerful wireless communication that reduces demand for travel, flying delivery drones to replace trucks, and policies to restrict the number of vehicles owned in each household are among the developments that could thwart the automobile’s historic dominance on the environment and culture. If current trends were to continue, the world would have to make way for a total of 3 billion vehicles on the road by 2025."

I'm skeptical about flying delivery drones replacing trucks. If so, truck crash may take on a whole new meaning. However, it is more conceivable that infrastructure improvements could lead to electronic traffic control in dedicated truck lanes, in which driver fatigue and interaction with passenger vehicles would be greatly reduced, thereby improving safety.

4. Careers, and the college majors for preparing for them, are becoming more specialized. . . .

The transportation industry may develop greater professionalism as the use of sophisticated technology further proliferates. Qualifications for safety managers, operations managers and even drivers may rise. Likewise, claims adjusting, investigation and litigation (on both sides) will require greater technical sophistication and specialization.

5. "There may not be world law in the foreseeable future, but the world’s legal systems will be networked. . . . "

Just as economies are increasingly networked and interdependent through modern means of communication and travel, the traditional balkanization of legal systems and the legal profession is changing. Most U.S. states have adopted multijurisdictional practice rules. Before long I expect will very apply not just to U.S. lawyers but to lawyers with which we have trade treaties. Expanding multijurisdictional practice rules to Canadian lawyers would be an easy first step. In the trucking safety field, we may see increasing standardization of truck safety rules between the U.S. and Europe. That would represent a vast upgrade in U.S. trucking safety standards.

6. "Professional knowledge will become obsolete almost as quickly as it’s acquired. An individual’s professional knowledge is becoming outdated at a much faster rate than ever before. Most professions will require continuous instruction and retraining. Rapid changes in the job market and work-related technologies will necessitate job education for almost every worker. At any given moment, a substantial portion of the labor force will be in job retraining programs."

We all must be lifelong learners. Increasingly sophisticated technology will require that everyone in the trucking industry go through regular retraining. Companies that provide training programs should do well. Trucking companies that do not invest in retraining will not survive.

Lawyers who litigate trucking cases must also invest in perpetual retraining. Though I have over 30 years experience as a trial lawyer, I get 60 or 70 hours of continuing legal education credit every year, in the best national programs I can find, compared to the mere 12 hours of CLE required by Bar rules. There is a long list of highly technical courses in the field that I plan to complete when time permits. Of course, with more internet delivery of educational programs, much more will be available everywhere. Those who do not continually retrain in any field will fall behind.

7. "The race for biomedical and genetic enhancement will-in the twenty-first century-be what the space race was in the previous century."

I'm not smart enough to see how this will affect trucking safety or litigation in my time.

8. "Urbanization will hit 60% by 2030. As more of the world’s population lives in cities, rapid development to accommodate them will make existing environmental and socioeconomic problems worse. Epidemics will be more common due to crowded dwelling units and poor sanitation. Global warming may accelerate due to higher carbon dioxide output and loss of carbon-absorbing plants."

See # 2 above. Increased competition for resources and worsening living conditions can easily feed instability, increasing security threats.

9. The Middle East will become more secular while religious influence in China will grow. Popular support for religious government is declining in places like Iraq, according to a University of Michigan study. The researchers report that in 2004 only one-fourth of respondents polled believed that Iraq would be a better place if religion and politics were separated. By 2007, that proportion was one-third. Separate reports indicate that religion in China will likely increase as an indirect result of economic activity and globalization.

This may be a countervailing force with regard to security threats discussed above. Less religious fanaticism in the Middle East and more religious faith in China looks good from where I sit. If we could see more positive influence of religion in our own country, that would be positive too.

10. Access to electricity will reach 83% of the world by 2030. Electrification has expanded around the world, from 40% connected in 1970 to 73% in 2000, and may reach 83% of the world’s people by 2030. Electricity is fundamental to raising living standards and access to the world’s products and services. Impoverished areas such as sub-Saharan Africa still have low rates of electrification; for instance, Uganda is just 3.7% electrified.

Rural electrification came to most of the U.S. when my parents were young. In my father's early childhood, the children studied by the light of kerosene lamps. He has clear memories of when they electric lines reached their home, bringing a radio and much broader access to the world.

When remote and poverty stricken areas of the world get access to electricity, they will be plunged immediately into the world economy and culture through television and the internet. Services that are now outsourced to India may tomorrow be outsourced to Uganda or Rwanda. Internet scams that today emerge from Nigeria may tomorrow be centered in Rwanda or Angola.

With access to the world culture and economy, youth in those areas will have a revolution of rising expectations, which may provide eager volunteers for terrorist or criminal groups. See discussion of security concerns above.

With greater access to electricity, Third World youth will also have greater access to education and opportunities to learn English. To the extent they can obtain visas to enter the U.S. -- or enter illegally -- they will be eager applicants to fill the lower economic rungs many industries, including trucking. To the extent that a new loophole created by the Georgia Court of Appeals is permitted to stand, then we can expect trucking companies to go through their designated agents to hire Third World drivers without even a CDL qualification driving unregulated trucks in order to totally evade all financial responsibility to injured members of the public.

Like weather forecasts, predictions by futurists are often wrong. However, if you don't keep an eye out for the waves you aren't likely to catch one. In the words of Shakespeare's Brutus:

There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures. Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218–224

Continue reading "Truck safety and law implications of Futurist predictions" »

As an Atlanta trial lawyer who does a lot of work in truck and bus accident cases, I am acutely aware of the symbiotic relationship between consumers, retailers, manufacturers, transportation, insurance, and the legal profession. We are all linked together.

Few sectors of the economy are as economically sensitive as freight transportation. And we certainly see it in the current deep recession, as economic downturn has brought a sharp decline in discretionary consumer spending, which is deeply cuts the amount of merchandise shipped to retailers, cutting in turn the demand for shipping.

The U.S. DOT estimates the amount of freight shipped in the U.S. dropped 4.3 percent in August and September.

An investment banking firm recently reported that 127,000 trucks, or 6.5 percent of the country’s fleet, have been idled.

Some 2,609 trucking firms with five or more rigs have failed this year.

YRC Worldwide, the corporation that owns Raodway and Yellow Freight, reports a 10% decline in revenue and has cut 6% of its workforce.

The good news is that less truck traffic should result in fewer injuries and deaths due to truck accidents. The bad news is that when trucking companies are hard pressed economically, they may be more inclined to cut corners on maintenance and safety management, and truck drivers may be more inclined to ignore hours of service and other safety rules.

Continue reading "Recession hits trucking industry hard" »

On I-95 in Virginia on December 1, a woman was killed when her Honda SUV was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer in a six-vehicle crash, and was wedged beneath the truck when it ignited. Kamala St. Germain, 75, was the founder of DoveStar, a massage and alternative healing school with locations in several states.

Ironically, before I read of the crash in the media, an eyewitness to the crash contacted me with the following observation:

Witnessed horrific accident I-95 Virginia December 1. One car completely destroyed by fire, a tanker, several cars overturned and one actually split in half.

None of the media accounts I have seen identified the trucking company or touched on the causes of the crash. While it is dangerous to jump to conclusions, usually when we dig into these types of incidents, we find that the truck driver was severely fatigued, taking prescription or over the counter medications that affected his attentiveness, going too fast for conditions, or some combination of the three.

Continue reading "Fiery truck crash kills great-grandmother in Virginia" »

While my perspective is that of a trial lawyer handling truck and bus accident injury cases in Atlanta, Georgia, it is necessary to keep up with developments nationally. Therefore, I am following how trucking safety issues are on the agenda for the new administration in Washington.

Last Monday, the transportation transition team met with representatives of major trucking industry interest groups including the American Trucking Association (ATA), the Truckload Carriers Association, Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, National Private Truck Council, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), and the truck manufacturers.

According to a report by Jami Jones of Land Line Magazine, some of the issues on which conflicting opinions were presented included:

- Truck size. The American Truicking Association favors using longer and heavier trucks for "productivity improvements." The OOIDA and others counter that this would take a toll on the nation's highway and bridge infrastructure.

- Loading and unloading time. The OOIDA representative pointed out that many drivers spend 30 to 40 or more hours per week waiting at loading docks to get loaded or unloaded. Addressing the waiting time problems at loading docks would improve productivity, as well as enhancing safety by helping encourage compliance with hours of service and reducing driver fatigue.

- Speed limiters. The ATA argues for speed limiters on trucks for reasons of safety and energy conservation. The OOIDA contends that speed limiters would hurt the incomes of truck drivers who are paid by the mile, and would have negative safety effects by ability to change lanes and move with the flow of traffic.

- Pressure from brokers, shippers, receivers and motor carriers. The OOIDA representative pointed out the the FMCSA concentrates too much of its enforcement efforts on drivers, while ignore the relationship between highway safety and the coercive demands of freight brokers, shippers, receivers and motor carriers upon drivers. The OOIDA representative pointed out that pointed out that truckers are under immense pressure from motor carriers, shippers and receivers. And that pressure is far more pervasive than the threat of any inspection scheme by FMCSA. “Unless those economic issues are addressed, drivers who become disqualified from driving … for safety violations will simply be replaced by new drivers facing the same economic pressures,” he told the transition team.

That is consistent with horror stories about economic pressures to violate safety rules I have heard from numerous truck drivers over the years.

- Truck parking and idling. Hours of service regulations require truck drivers to take mandatory rest periods. However, there are often inadequate spaces available for trucks to park and local governments restrict truck parking. Representatives urged a national approach to availability of truck parking for rest.

- Other topics discussed included electronic on-board recorders, parking shortages, idling regulations, highway financing and driver training.

Continue reading "Obama transition team hears truck safety debate points" »

A trucker speeding on a rain-slick expressway caused the fiery chain reaction in a tunnel on I-5 just north of Los Angeles last year. The location on I-5 is near my son's college apartment, so I have been by it many times. However, the case also has a local angle in metro Atlanta.

According to a report from California Highway Patrol investigators, Jose Reyes, 29, was driving at least 65 mph in the rain when his truck veered left and crashed into a concrete median wall after driving through the tunnel. The posted speed limit for that stretch of road is 55 mph, according to a report by Jack Leonard of the Los Angeles Times.

The resulting chain-reaction behind him killed a 6-year-old boy and two adults, and injured 10 others.

The report concluded that Saia Motor Freight Line Inc. was responsible for maintenance of the truck, and that the right front brake of the truck was not in working condition.

Saia Motor Freight Line Inc. is based right here in Fulton County, Georgia, in an office park in the suburb of Johns Creek, Georgia. According to USDOT information, it has 4,339 drivers and 3,552 motor units. While it has a "satisfactory" safety rating, in the past two years it has had 9 fatal crashes and 96 crashes with injuries.

On the face of the LA Times article, there appear to be at least three violations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. I would bet there are more.

Continue reading "Truck speeding on rain slick freeway with bad brakes caused fiery pileup in tunnel" »

Today's issue of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution includes an article by Steve Owings, who founded Road Safe America after his son was killed by a speeding tractor trailer on cruise control six years ago.

Having met Steve and learned of his motivation to make the roads safer for everyone, I'm just going to copy his article here in order to give his words wider distribution.

Big rig killed our son; drive safely on busiest traffic day

By Stephen C. Owings

For the Journal-Constitution

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

My rearview mirror has turned into a time machine. Every now and then, when I glance into it, I see my son Cullum backing out of our driveway, waving one last time as he pulls away. Then, the truth comes crashing home again: I’m still here, and he’s not.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving will be a hard day for us again this year. It marks the sixth anniversary of Cullum’s tragic, violent passing. He was a young man of 22 with great promise whose life was ended in its prime, without warning, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2002, the busiest highway traffic day of the year. Stopped in an interstate traffic jam while headed back to school in Virginia with his younger brother, Pierce, Cullum saw the lights of the speeding tractor trailer rig in his rearview mirrors. As he was trying to get the car over to the left median to get out of the way, the big rig speeding on cruise control crashed into the boys’ car with full force, crushing it like a toy. That night, we got the phone call every parent dreads and will remember with horror for the rest of our lives: Pierce, who miraculously had survived, told us through his tears from the ambulance that Cullum had been killed.

My wife, Susan, Pierce and I will never stop asking the question why Cullum? However, we believe we have found answers to the many questions about why and how that wreck and thousands more heavy truck-car crashes happen each year. In an effort to learn all we could and then to educate motorists and big rig drivers about the inherent dangers for everyone when heavy commercial trucks travel at high speeds, we founded the nonprofit Road Safe America in 2003.

This Sunday will be the fourth annual national observance of Drive Safer Sunday in America, a day for which we have had state, congressional and media support for a national campaign urging everyone to drive more safely on the busiest highway traffic day of the year.

Since founding Road Safe America, we have been joined by the American Trucking Associations, all national safety advocacy organizations, numerous trucking firms, business executives, insurance companies and thousands of citizens in seeking a national regulation requiring activation of electronic speed limiting governors on all trucks 13 tons and up built after 1992. All trucks built since 1992 already come with the speed governors installed, so it would be a simple thing to activate them. Oddly, the Bush administration has opposed this common sense, inexpensive regulation that would save many of the lives of approximately 4,000 motorists and 1,000 truckers killed each year in crashes involving big trucks. We have asked President-elect Barack Obama to be more compassionate, and we hope his administration will appoint a secretary of transportation who takes action.

If saving lives is not motivation enough to support this cause, in this era of dependency on foreign sources of oil, consider the fact that activation of speed governing technology is already done by many trucking firms as a way to cut fuel use as well as improve safety. With a reduction of only 5 mph, millions of gallons of fuel can be saved annually in the nation’s trucking fleet.

The European Union, Australia, Japan and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec have regulations requiring speed-limiting devices set at 65 mph or slower on all large trucks. Sadly, instead of showing international leadership, the U.S. is behind the rest of the world in this area.

According to Australian government statistics, Australia experienced a reduction of 26.5 percent in heavy truck fatalities between 2002 and 2004 through speed governor requirements, aggressive fatigue management programs, random drug testing and seatbelt promotion within the trucking industry.

When an airliner goes down and 200 people perish, it is national news for weeks. But when twice that many are killed every month in crashes involving big trucks, where is the outcry?

No one at Road Safe America is anti-trucking or anti-trucker. In fact, the opposite is the case. In terms of annual deaths and injuries, trucking is the most dangerous profession in America, and we want to change that. We are trying to educate drivers of passenger autos and other vehicles about the need to operate more safely around large trucks because of the dangers present. Trucking is an absolutely vital industry to the economic health and prosperity of our nation. However, by limiting heavy commercial trucks’ speeds, we know that many more drivers will make it home to their families, and more motorists will live to see their loved ones again as well —- this Sunday and for many Sundays to come.

Stephen Owings is an Atlanta resident and the co-founder of Road Safe America.

A Florida truck driver admitted that he was on his cell phone yesterday when he slammed into a school bus, killing a 13-year-old student. According to reports, the school bus, which had stopped to let children off , had its warning lights on and stop signs out. The truck failed to stop for it and rammed the school bus forward 294 feet.

See our recent posts on cell phone distractions and the absence of seat belts on busses.

Continue reading "Florida truck driver on cell phone hits school bus, kills child" »

Over the road truck driving is a tough job that a lot of folks find less desirable than construction jobs and other work that allows them to be home every night. A couple of years ago, when the economy was better, I wrote about the shortage of truck drivers that led trucking companies to improve benefits and recruit nontraditional sources of truck driving labor such as women, retirees and especially Hispanics.

Now, however, with the economy in the tank, the trucking industry is systematically recruiting displaced auto workers.

Maybe next trucking companies will start recruiting displaced investment bankers on Wall Street who will be hard pressed to find corporate jobs in finance. Anybody who can handle a trading desk should be able to handle the cab of a tractor trailer.

Continue reading "Trucking companies recruiting displaced auto workers. Are investment bankers next?" »

I'm just a trucking accident trial lawyer in Georgia, and it's been over three decades since my last economics class in college. Therefore, even though I read the Wall Street Journal and Investors Business Daily more or less regularly, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my blog post about implications of the economic crisis for trucking and insurance was cited as one of the best legal blog posts expressing insight on the ongoing economic calamity. My econ profs at Furman way back when would be astonished.

Continue reading "Georgia truck wreck lawyer comment cited among best blog posts about impact of Wall Street mess" »

As a lawyer handling catastrophic trucking accidents, I have repeatedly seen the deadly effects of driver fatigue as truckers are pushed beyond their physical limits by trucking companies and shippers.

Now the National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday recommended that trucking companies and the government place increased emphasis on making sure truck drivers follow regulations governing proper rest. Additionally, officials at the NTSB recommended that the government should investigate the use of alarms and other devices to monitor drivers’ alertness. Experts estimate that fatigue is responsible for one in eight large-truck crashes.

The NTSB also called upon the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to step up enforcement of trucking companies, making sure their record-keeping is up to date and drivers are being given adequate time to rest.

Investigators also debated the use of technology designed to warn of impending collisions and automatically engage the brakes. They discussed concerns that automatic braking could interfere with the stability of large rigs, so the board recommended that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study the technology and mandate its use if it proves effective.

Continue reading "NTSB urges stronger enforcement of truck driver rest period rules" »

As a truck accident trial lawyer, I'm neither an economist nor an investment guru. However, I have ridden through a few economic cycles during my career.

Earlier I wrote about some of the short term implications of the current Wall Street debacles on trucking and insurance. I expect to see more corner cutting on trucking safety as companies deal with high fuel costs, more truckers failing to renew insurance policies above the minimum required by law, more small trucking companies failing, more consolidation in the trucking industry, and more insurance companies blaming trial lawyers and claimants for premium increases that really result from their investment losses.

As a result, we will probably see more bad truck accidents, more liability claims, more lawsuits, and as insurers try to avoid paying claims that they should settle, more substantial jury verdicts.

Some marginal insurers and self-insured trucking companies may go under, leaving claimants without recourse, as happened in the notorious Builders Transport bankruptcy a number in the early nineties. We lawyers who handle trucking cases will need to evaluate solvency of insurers more closely, as well as liability and damages, in screening cases.

That's the short term -- the next 3 to 5 years. But what will be the long-term effect over the next 8 to 10 years?

Consolidation of the trucking industry may result in more systematic safety management. While there are exceptions, larger trucking companies are able to have more professional management, screen their drivers, and supervise their fleets more competently with trained safety and risk managers, better technology, and satellite communications systems to monitor and manage drivers. That's not to say they are angels. They also have greater capacity for sophisticated mischief. Smaller trucking companies often lack sophisticated management, are more likely to hire marginal drivers, and are more prone to purchase minimum limits of insurance from shadier than average insurance companies.

Insurance coverage amounts may go up. Larger trucking companies have more to lose, and therefore typically carry more insurance than smaller trucking companies. Maybe it's mere wishful thinking, but perhaps there could even be an increase in the required minimum amounts of coverage to keep up with inflation and a tightening of criteria for self-insurance in the trucking industry.

Consolidation of inter-modal freight companies, combining rail and truck transport of containerized freight, will expand. They may maintain the appearance of separate entities to shield against liability.

There will be increased use of tandem trailers. Longer and heavier tractor-trailer combinations will almost certainly have adverse effects on highway safety.

The shortage of qualified truck drivers as Boomers reach retirement age will lead to hiring of more immigrant truck drivers and further relaxing of English language competency requirements. That has negative safety implications. Also look for revival of the proposal to open the US to Mexican trucking companies.

The defense of trucking accident cases will become even tougher. All large trucking companies deploy "rapid response teams" immediately after serious accidents, often arriving before the debris is cleared. Their skill in securing favorable evidence and "losing" bad evidence is amazing. With consolidation of the industry, I expect their ability to control evidence while victims are still in the emergency room will become even more pronounced.

Continue reading "Trucking accidents and insurance - longer term implications of the current credit crisis" »

As a truck accident trial lawyer in Atlanta, I'm puzzling over how the falling dominoes in the current crisis on Wall Street will impact the trucking and insurance industries.

High fuel prices, hurricanes, dependence on foreign oil, the subprime mortgage mess, the economic rise of China and India, the cost of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and deferred spending on American infrastructure combine to affect both trucking and insurance.

Oil prices have risen due in large part to the increased world demand accompanying the economic development of China and India, while we are dependent upon Arabs, Russians, etc. for our supply. On the other hand, oil prices are moderated by any economic slowdown that decreases demand.

Hurricanes, which may be increasing in intensity due to global warming, temporarily impact fuel prices as they hamper production, refinery and port capacity on the Gulf coast. Payment of hurricane losses impacts the insurance industry that has already been impacted by the financial mess.

In trucking, high fuel costs have both direct and indirect effects. The direct impact of high fuel prices on truckers is obvious. Moreover, I have heard from truckers that motor carriers collect fuel surcharges and too often fail to pass it on to independent owner operators who actually purchase the fuel. The indirect impact is on demand, as shippers shift more long-haul business from trucks to rail. Any slowdown in the economy further depresses demand for shipping.

As more shipping shifts from long-haul trucks to multimodal freight logistics systems involving both long-haul rail and short-haul trucking, we are likely to see more freight containers bolted to poorly maintained trailer chassis. We will see a shift in the technical, regulatory and insurance issues involved in trucking accidents that result. Unfortunately, some judges who have poor understanding of trucking regulations and case law will not comprehend what is going on and render simplistic judgments with devastating impacts on innocent victims. The challenge for lawyers will be to ferret out the details of business relationships in order to overcome the multiple layers of defenses.

Under economic pressure, we can expect many trucking companies to cut corners on all aspects of safety. Those companies that carry more insurance than the law requires will be tempted to bet the company that, despite compromises on safety, they won’t face catastrophic injury claims.

There is already an ongoing shakeout in the trucking industry. That will continue. I keep hearing reports of owner operators just walking away from rigs they can’t pay for any more Some of those used trucks will wind up being exported to other countries. I expect we will see a trend toward reduction of trucking industry capacity and consolidation in the trucking industry.

At the same time, the financial crisis that began with the meltdown in subprime mortgage-backed securities has reached beyond investment banking to the insurance giant AIG. Laying aside any feelings of schadenfreude (joy about another’s misfortune) due to the arrogant corporate culture of AIG under the leadership of former CEO Hank Greenberg, we have to recognize the prominent role of AIG in the insurance industry. As the implications of its downfall ripple through the insurance industry, I expect to share the pain.

While AIG is the teetering giant in the news today, we will soon find that the impact of the financial crisis is widespread in the insurance industry, affecting both the insurance companies that are familiar to the public and the reinsurers that insure the insurance companies. If reinsurers begin to fail, the shock waves will reverberate throughout the insurance industry.

The insurance industry has a long history of blaming injury victims and trial lawyers for its own investment losses. It seems that every financial crisis affecting insurers' investments is soon followed by a new round of premium increases. Unwilling to accept responsibility for investment losses, insurers blame the little guys and campaign for a new round of "tort reform."

Due to the financial meltdown related to securitization of subprime mortgages, we will likely see increasing insurance premiums for everyone, including truckers. Many truckers who are already struggling will be put out of business by increases in fuel and insurance costs unrelated to anything they did wrong.

As the truckers cut costs, safety management will be one of the first things cut. The end result will be that more people will be killed or injured. Lawyers like me will represent the victims. Insurance and trucking companies will fight even harder to avoid paying claims. Stubborn refusals to pay legitimate claims will result in more trials of cases they should settle, and more large jury verdicts.

In this environment more than ever, families that are devastated when trucking companies operate in an unsafe manner need to understand that the insurance companies send "rapid response" teams to scenes of serious accidents, and will try to lull them into complacency while crucial evidence is "lost" or destroyed. Time is of the essence as it is essential to take early action to preserve evidence. We are prepared to fight the good fight against trucking and companies that are determined to avoid and delay payment of legitimate claims.

Continue reading "Impact of the Wall Street crisis on trucking and insurance" »

As a Georgia trucking attorney, I sometimes see motor carriers create a shell game in which they claim after a tragic accident happens, to have been acting as a broker or logistics company, rather than as a motor carrier. Of course, when you dig into their marketing materials, they usually represented to shipping customers they were pretty much a "one stop shop" that covered everything from pickup to delivery.

49 C.F.R. § 371.7(b) provides, “A broker shall not, directly or indirectly, represent its operations to be that of a carrier.” A broker may be treated as a carrier if it does not delineate the broker role. See, e.g., KLS Air Express, Inc. v. Cheetah Transp. LLC, 2007 WL 2428294 (E.D.Cal.,2007).

Continue reading "In trucking accidents, consider a claim against a freight broker or logistics company" »

As a trucking accident trial lawyer representing both occupants of passenger cars and truck drivers who are badly injured in trucking collisions, I have been thinking a lot lately about the implications of rising oil prices on the trucking industry in general, and trucking safety in particular.

If truckers are in financial distress, many will be even more tempted to cut corners on hours of service, maintenance, etc., with a foreseeable effects on safety.

The same economic distress will lead some to skip or delay payments on insurance premiums and cut out coverage above the minimum required. As long as there is an MCS-90 endorsement in place, we can recover damages up to the amount of the endorsement, typically one million dollars. However, if truckers can’t maintain insurance coverage, they can’t continue to legally operate.

One possible outcome is that the demise of small truckers may lead to trucking industry consolidation. Some larger carriers really do a better job in managing safety and reducing bad incidents. But it seems that some merely do a better job of cheating, making it harder to uncover unsafe practices.

Continue reading "Truck safety implications of rising fuel prices" »